Time Winding Down as DHS Funding Deadline Nears in the Senate

Kayla Mueller’s Father: US Put Policy In Front of Lives

Meet the Press
February 22, 2015

What Does ISIS Really Want?

Meet the Press
February 22, 2015

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>the issue of edward
snowden
has been very much in the news this week with calls potentially for a deal with the
united states government
. you've called him a hero. you've said perhaps he would face penalties that would be too harsh. that's why he's not returning. "the
wall street journal
" editorial --

>>go ahead.

>>i was just going to say that's not exactly what i've said. i've said i have sort of mixed feelings. i think he's brought to forward something and i think his motives are noble in the sense i think he believe ooze the government was doing something unconstitutional and bringing this information forward. i don't think we'd have any of this debate had he not done it, but i've also said what he did was against the law and we do have to have laws to protect national secrets, you know, captains in the military, sergeants in the military do have to obey orders and we can't reveal secrets. i haven't said he shouldn't be punished. i've just said the
death penalty
is excessive.
life in prison
is excess sessive and he has brought an important debate.

>>what would you call on the attorney general, the president to do in terms of fashioning some kind of plea with him? what would be appropriate?

>>i'm not sure what the answer is. i've been responding not so much in a legal fashion but i'm responding to some i think overheated rhetoric by people saying let's string him up, let's shoot him. he's a traitor, this and that. i don't assign bad motives to
snowden
. i think his motives were good. i'm not sure he did the right thing in the right way. i also don't assign bad motives to
james clapper
but he did break the law and he is exposed himself to five years in prison for perjury. so you can't have it both ways. you can't say we're going to throw the book at
snowden
and going to ignore perjury to congress by
james clapper
. they both, if you want to apply the law, it has to be applied equally.

>>about what your colleagues the chairs of the intelligence committees, namely
mike rogers
in the house strongly suggesting on this program last week that
snowden
was a spy for the
russians
that he had help from the
russians
that he went into the
open arms
of the
russians
to seek refuge there? how do you react to that? do you think that's fair?

>>you know, i don't have details to know what the situation is there. i think it's complicated the way history will treat him because it's a little hard to be over there in russia talking about privacy and the
bill of rights
in a country that has persecuted journalists and doesn't really have the same
degree of freedom
we have in our country. so it has complicated it. but i don't know whether or not what his release and exactly what they're referring to.

>>let me ask you more about some of the debates within the
republican party
.
mike huckabee
former governor of arkansas got nest hot water this week with comments he said. he talked about a war for
women
. here's what he said.

>>the democrats want to insult the
women
of america by making them believe that they are helpless without uncle sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for
birth control
because they can't control their libido or
reproductive system
without the help of the government. so be it.
let us
take that discussion all across america because
women
are far more than the democrats have played them to be.

>>is this helpful?

>>well, you know, we have a lot of debates in
washington
that get dumbed down and used for political purposes. this whole sort of war on
women
thing, i'm scratching my head because if there was a war on
women
, i think they won. you know, the
women
in my family are incredibly successful. i have a niece at
cornell vet school
and 85% of the
young people
there are
women
in. in
med school
, 55%. my
younger sister
is an ob-gyn with six kids and doing great. i don't see so much that
women
are downtrodden. i see them rising up and doing great things. in fact, i worry about our young men sometimes because i think the
women
are outcompeting the men in our world.

>>but my question whether you think it's appropriate for the party key figures in the party to be talking about
women
,
women
's het,
women
's bodies and the role of the
federal government
related to those things.

>>i try never to have discussions of anatomy unless i'm at a medical conference. what i would say is we didn't start this sort of, i think, glossy and sometimes dumbed down debate about there being a war on
women
. i think the facts show that
women
are doing very well, have come a long way, and you know, like i say, i have a lot of successful
women
in my family and i don't hear them saying, whoa is me, this terrible you know, misojist world. they're conquering the world. the
women
? my family are doing great. that's what i see in all the sticks coming out. i have, you know,
young women
in my office that are the leading intellectual lights of our office. so i don't really see there's some sort of war that's you know, keeping
women
down. i see
women
doing great and i think we should extol that success and not dumb it down into a
political campaign
that somehow one party doesn't like
women
or that. i think that's what's happened. all for political purposes.

>>elsewhere in republican politics,
chris christie
in new jersey is facing troubles over the bridge scandal there. and you've had your own feud with him. here's a little bit of tape that brings people up to date on that.

>>this strain of liberty tearism that's going through through both parties right now and making big headlines i think is a very dangerous thought.

>>if he cared about protecting this country, maybe he wouldn't be in this gimme, gimme, gimme all the money you have in
washington
.

>>maybe he should start look at cutting
pork barrel spending
he brings home to kentucky but i doubt he would because most
washington
politicians only care about bringing home the bacon so they can get re-elected.

>>this is the king of bacon talking about bacon.

>>understand you two have been working through some of your feud. but my question for you is, do you think that
chris christie
could get the republican nomination?

>>you know, i think that's yet to be determined. the nomination goes through some very conservative primaries. i think there's room for more moderate republicans in the party and i really am a believer that we should have an expansive and diverse party idea logically and diverse in many ways but the primary is a very conservative process, and the -- my understanding is it will be more difficult for a moderate to make it through because we truly are fiscal conservatives in our party. if we are going to spend something on such as sandy, which is i think something the country was going to take responsibility in, we think we should pay for it. i offered an amendment on sandy to take the money everyone
foreign aid
and say look, we don't need it. if we're going to repair bridges in new jersey, i'm fine with that. if we're going to repair houses and roads, but let's take it from repairing roads in pakistan because there's a limited amount of money and really we're borrowing about a million dollars a minute a lot from china and japan. i don't think we should do that and we need to set priorities and say if we're going to help new jersey, it ought to be paid for. but that's why i think that there was a debate over him sort of lecturing congress and saying
gimme gimme gimme
all this money. all i was asking for and many other republicans were asking for is it ought to be paid for in spending cuts through overseas is spending